Postcard #1

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2006

It was February and cold, as most are in Toronto; the kind of cold that chills you right through. Everyone rushed to and from point to point in multiple layers, in gloves, scarves, hats, mitts. Anything to combat the freezing wind whipping off lake Ontario. No one would be outside if there was any other way, which was why the lack of movement of two men ahead caught my attention.

The closer I moved toward the intersection the clearer it became. Standing right in the path of all the rushing pedestrians were two homeless men. Both of them wore beards from warmth, tucked their hairy chins into their worn out, hole filled jackets. One man was in a wheel chair. His rugged pants were cut off and tied at the knee, right where his thighs ended. In his hand was a Tim Horton's cup, extended toward everyone who passed by. It seemed pretty empty. Only a few coins jingled inside.

I stopped, just hung back for a moment, to watch them in action. I had seen countless homeless men, but there was something odd about this pair.

The man in the wheel chair seemed hostile, uncomfortable. Sure, he was homeless, legless, and stuck panhandling in negative twenty degree [Celsius] weather, but those things didn't seem to get to him as much as his unwanted company.

A man in shiny black shoes, carrying a heavy briefcase passed them by.

"Look! This man doesn't have any legs!" the unwanted company yelled out. A dollar was tossed into the cup. He went on, "Can't you spare some change, man? No legs!" He was attracting all sorts of attention.

"Lost his legs in Nam," he told one man who dropped a few nickels into his cup.

A few more coins landed in the cup when he told a group of mohawk sporting teenagers, "Police brutality left him legless and helpless!"

An elderly couple believed the story of a house fire and screaming children. A smoldering piece of wood fell from the roof and crushed him from the knees down. They bought him a sandwich, leaving it sitting on his lap.

The man in the wheelchair said nothing as people passed, gawking at him. The loud man took a look into the cup. After a long pause he took it and emptied the change into his pocket. He handed the cup back to the man in the wheelchair and walked away, pleased and humming to himself. The man in chair dropped the paper cup and smiled as he un-wrapped his sandwich.